ALTAR RECORDS Chronos When Mars Meets Venus (Part 1: Mars) 2012 1. Leaving Gaia (Mechanical Edit) 2. Arkturus 3. Hi Tech Mosaic 4. Sequenced Engine 5. Zirda 6. One Touch & Whole Life 7. Shining Parallel World 8. Lullaby For The Little Robot 9. Broken Song 10. Pain Feedback 11. Alex Sparky

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In the first half of the year 2012 Nikita Klimenko aka Chronos, a very creative Russian chillout artist decided to tell us a story of two parallel worlds – the female (Venus) and male (MARS) by using his music, which is hard to put into one specific genre framework. In two separate parts of his story (WHEN MARS MEETS VENUS PART 1: MARS and WHEN MARS MEETS VENUS PART 2: VENUS), Chronos inspired by a theme of science fiction, has made an intergalactic sound travel, which combined several smaller stories in one compact unit.
What can be said about the leader of the project Chronos? Nikita Klimenko, a musician from Moscow, producer, sound designer, and even performer so far has released five full-length albums: STEPS TO THE GREAT KNOWLEDGE (2007), QUID EST VERITAS (2009) together with Catalizer, INSPIRATIONAL POWER (2011), WHEN MARS MEETS VENUS PART 1: MARS (2012), WHEN MARS MEETS VENUS PART 2: VENUS (2012). What is more, he has released also five single EPs, his tracks have appeared in many compilations as collaborations with such leading representatives of the chillout scene as: Asura, Astropilot, Lemonchill, Side Liner, Zero Cult, etc. A slogan, by which Chronos is guided 'Music for awakening consciousness’ is obviously the best motto summarizing his work.
I think not without reason Nikita has chosen a nickname for himself – Chronos, which in ancient Greek means 'time’, because the time stimulates us to think and act. Is it not the past, present, future, the experienced and passing moments that are the incentives for us to act, to stimulate the awareness? The history as a product of time allows the musician to reach the resources of art, themes which have emerged much earlier, and thanks to which the contemporary music could be enriched. The time is the driving force behind the art.

In 2012, after nearly a year of absence on the psychill scene psychill, Chronos has given to us two new albums: WHEN MARS MEETS VENUS PART 1: MARS and WHEN MARS MEETS VENUS PART 2: VENUS, in which he deftly oscillates around number of very different kinds of music – downtempo, ambient, psychill, psytrance, ethnic music, world music, funk, dubstep, idm, rock, electronic music like from some soundtracks of the legendary science fiction movies. The last genre also took inspiration from books written by such authors as: Ivan Efremov, Stanislav Lem, Ray Bradbury, of which Nikita is an admirer. In my review I would like to focus on the first of the two most recent albums that is the section called MARS. The album from the year 2012 is for me, short speaking, a galactic, cosmic journey straight from the science fiction movie. And in this place there is one problem which I found hard to deal with – I do not like such climates and therefore I can not entirely evaluate WHEN MARS MEETS VENUS PART 1: MARS in plus. Fortunately, these motives are not the only ones and as Chronos says, his albums are like: 'It’s also a story featuring unconditional love which is present everywhere in our universe and about the principles of relationships of man (Mars) & woman (Venus)’. After hearing the whole first part of the history of Mars and Venus, I see a kind of procedure – MARS is the strongly sounding album, and probably it was deliberately used by the producer, because stereotypically men are physically stronger than women, that is why the first album consists not only of ambient, but also of dubstep, idm, downtempo. Chronos recognizes an inseparable link between masculine and feminine, and among his friends and sources of inspiration there is a large number of both sexes, whom moreover he warmly thanks on the album cover. He does not forget also to thank the one who has created this unusual relationship between women and men, which became the inspiration to create the music.

In the album WHEN MARS MEETS VENUS PART 1: MARS, which was mastered by DJ Zen, we can find some interesting things to know. To a digital version there was added a bonus track SYNTH TUNING, and the track ONE TOUCH & WHOLE LIFE was created entirely during one day using synthesizers which have already been twenty five years old (!).

To sum up, in the album of Chronos from the year 2012 I have managed to find something for myself, but I can not say that it has met my expectations completely. I appreciate the innovative approach of Klimenko, the extremely consistent connectivity of science fiction motifs, space relationships between Mars and Venus, earthy relationships between the man and woman; I like that Chronos eagerly reaches for musical equipment, instruments used many years back, he is not limited only by the gains of the contemporary musical technique, but for me still something is missing here. In my point of view, the tracks are uneven in terms of their level. Many of them are brilliant ones, and some of them simply do not fit here, but I do not want to suggest you which ones I mean specifically. I will just finish very simply, using the words of Chronos: 'Have a great trip through the milky way!’.
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7 / 10
Kasia